Month: October 2023

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JILL COLVIN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump will back in court next week for his New York civil fraud trial. That’s according to a person familiar with the former president’s plans who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity before an official announcement.

By DÁNICA COTO and EVENS SANON Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Haiti has declined to join neighboring Dominican Republic in reopening a key border crossing for trade. That leaves some commercial activity at a standstill and prolongs a diplomatic crisis over the construction of a canal on Haitian soil. Dominican President Luis

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) — Officials say serial killer Douglas Daniel Clark has died of natural causes. He was 75. Clark was sentenced to death for six grisly murders in California during the early 1980s. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says he died Wednesday at an outside medical facility. He had been housed

By ASTRID SUÁREZ Associated Press NECOCLI, Colombia (AP) — In Necocli, Colombia, the local economy has shifted, revolving around the migrants who have been arriving for several years. Those hanging around no longer number in the thousands, as in 2021 after Haiti’s earthquake. Now there are just dozens who wait in Necocli each day, most

By CORA LEWIS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Tens of millions of older Americans will see a modest increase in benefits in January when a new cost-of-living adjustment is added to Social Security payments. The 3.2% raise is intended to help meet higher prices for food, fuel, and other goods and services. The average

PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors are investigating a suspected poisoning of a Russian journalist who fled Russia after denouncing the war in Ukraine on live TV. The Paris prosecutor’s office said Marina Ovsyannikova called emergency services and was hospitalized after suddenly falling ill at her Paris apartment on Thursday. The office says she suspected she’d

By TRÂN NGUYỄN Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed off on two proposals to transform the state’s mental health system and to address the state’s worsening homelessness crisis. The plan announced Thursday will go before voters in March 2024. Newsom wants to borrow billions of dollars through a bond

ISABEL DEBRE, SAMYA KULLAB and MOHAMMED JAHJOUH Associated Press GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital overflowed Thursday as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them on the sixth day of Israel’s heavy aerial bombardment on the territory of 2.3 million people. With scores of Palestinians killed each

By KEN SWEET and LARRY NEUMEISTER The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer struggled through a meandering cross-examination of the FTX founder’s former girlfriend Thursday, keeping both the judge and the public guessing as to the defense team’s strategy in countering the testimony of the government’s key witness. Caroline Ellison had testified

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is supporting the city’s effort to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires it to provide emergency housing to homeless people, as a large influx of migrants overwhelms the city’s shelter system. Hochul endorsed the city’s challenge to the requirement in

By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Nevada Supreme Court plans to soon hear the NFL’s appeal of a crucial ruling denying a request to move former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit against the league into closed-door arbitration. Gruden’s 2021 lawsuit accuses the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell of a

BY SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer A new study finds that changes in the climate and land use are combining to dramatically shrink the numbers of insects pollinating key tropical crops. Thursday’s study says as those problems intertwine and intensify, it likely will hit coffee lovers right in the mug. And that one-two punch will

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The White House has selected the Philadelphia area and West Virginia for two regional hubs to produce and deliver hydrogen fuel, which is an important part of the Biden administration’s clean energy plan. That word comes from a person familiar with the plan who spoke on

By MARCIO SANCHEZ and JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press FRAZIER PARK, Calif. (AP) — A liquor store in a tiny California mountain town reverberated with excitement Thursday after word that the winning ticket for a $1.765 billion Powerball jackpot was sold there. The drawing Wednesday night ended a long stretch without a winner of the top

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Passenger railroads nationwide will now be required to install video recorders inside their locomotives. But the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday the new rule is flawed because it excludes freight trains, like the one that derailed and caught fire in eastern

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say two former employees of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor are the focus of an investigation into a secret recording of several City Council members and a labor leader. The leaked recording entangled City Hall in a racism scandal and led to the resignations of the Los Angeles

MIDDLETON, Idaho (AP) — Authorities briefly ordered evacuations for most of the town of Middleton, Idaho, after a gas line exploded at nearby rural intersection late Thursday morning. Canyon County Sheriff’s spokesperson Joe Decker said he did not yet know if any injuries were reported in connection with the explosion in southwestern Idaho. He said

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s former agriculture minister has been arrested by the country’s anti-graft commission on accusations of bribery, abuse of power and fraud. Syahrul Yasin Limpo resigned his position as agriculture minister last week to focus on the impending legal proceedings against him. He was formally named as

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A 31-year-old San Francisco man has been identified as the driver who was shot and killed by police after crashing a car into the Chinese consulate. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified the driver Thursday as Zhanyuan Yang. The crash has drawn condemnation from the White House and Chinese

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — A police chief in Alabama apologized Wednesday for his department giving incorrect information about what was said before officers shot and killed a homeowner during a dispute with a tow truck driver. Decatur Police Chief Todd Pinion wrote in a statement that the department gave an inaccurate description of officer’s commands

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The case of a Tennessee man charged with trying to enter his former Jewish school with a gun and firing shots at a contractor who was working there can now be presented to a grand jury for a possible indictment. A judge signed off on Joel

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The Pentagon calls it FrankenSAM. It’s a project that cobbles together air defense weapons for Ukraine from an array of parts from around the world. But now, as congressional gridlock delays funding for the war in Ukraine, the Frankenstein-like program for surface-to-air missiles has become more

By SONIA PÉREZ D. Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — One of the leaders of the nationwide protests that have paralyzed much of Guatemalan commerce for nearly two weeks is a young one-time law student who is now leader of one of the country’s most important Indigenous organizations. Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei has tried to

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The amount of tax money owed but not paid to the IRS is set to keep growing. For tax years 2021 and 2020, the projected gross “tax gap” soared to $688 billion and $601 billion, respectively. That marks a significant jump compared to years past.

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ Republican attorney general has asked the state’s highest court to reward the GOP-controlled Legislature for following through on a decade’s worth of court-mandated education funding increases by closing a lawsuit filed by local school districts. The action requested Wednesday by Attorney General Kris Kobach’s

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli ground offensive in Gaza would further escalate the war raging since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack days ago. A ground invasion would threaten to draw in the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah from the north. The United States already deployed one aircraft carrier group to

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — When it comes to packing on the pounds to survive an Alaska winter, this year’s undisputed champ is Grazer. The brown mama bear has won this year’s Fat Bear Week at Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Grazer had no problems dominating the finals of the bracket-style tournament

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and SEUNG MIN KIM ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is expected to announce soon that the U.S. government will begin operating evacuation flights to help Americans leave Israel as Israel prepares to escalate retaliatory action on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. That’s according to two people familiar

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors in New York City have rewritten their indictment against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife to charge them with conspiring to have him act as an agent of Egypt and Egyptian officials. The superseding indictment was filed in Manhattan federal

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has spent decades as a stalwart supporter of Israel, a connection rooted in long-ago dinner table conversations with his father about the Holocaust. Now his devotion is back in the spotlight the Hamas attacks that caused the largest loss of Jewish life in a

By OMAR ALBAM Associated Press DANA, Syria (AP) — United Nations humanitarian officials have sounded an alarm over a humanitarian crisis in rebel-held northwestern Syria. They warned on Thursday that intense shelling by government forces displaced almost 70,000 people in recent weeks. The Syrian government, backed by Russia, pounded the country’s northwest after a drone

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts police are pursuing assault and battery and disorderly conduct charges against three Rhode Island men in the recent death of a fan at a New England Patriots game. The Foxborough Police Department said in a statement Thursday that it was going to court to seek charges against the men in the

LONDON (AP) — Police are on the scene after a plane from Nairobi bound for London’s Heathrow Airport was escorted by air force fighter jets and diverted to land at Stansted airport. The Ministry of Defense said Royal Air Force Typhoon fighters were launched “as a precaution this afternoon to investigate a civilian aircraft which

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The International Monetary Fund says Middle East economies are gradually recovering as external shocks from the war in Ukraine and global inflation fade. But the escalating war between Israel and the Hamas militant group could dampen the outlook, especially if other regional actors join the battle. The IMF said

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human rights body has agreed to renew the work of an independent expert who has reported on deteriorating human rights conditions in Russia after President Vladimir Putin launched all-out war on Ukraine last year. The Human Rights Council on Thursday voted 18 to 7, with 22 abstentions, to extend

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria’s Supreme Court has ruled that a journalist targeted as part of a broader crackdown against pro-democracy protests will remain imprisoned. Defense attorneys for Ihsane El Kadi, the owner of a media company that oversaw Algeria’s now-shuttered news site Maghreb Emergent and radio station Radio M, had asked the court to

By MELISSA MURPHY AP Sports Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Billie Jean King is still globetrotting for women’s sports. She attended the Women’s World Cup in Australia, kicked off the player draft for the new women’s professional hockey league in Toronto and is opening a London office for a tennis business venture involving the international

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s government is warning citizens to beware of a disinformation campaign after some people got fake messages saying the ruling party was offering free funerals for pensioners. The country is facing a crucial national election on Sunday, and the fake messages and the warnings come as

By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Moran Stela Yanai’s family is speaking about the Israeli woman who loved making jewelry and protecting animals. Her brother-in-law, Dan Mor, says in an interview that the family was alarmed over the weekend when she disappeared from a desert rave after Hamas’ incursion into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Then

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly leader is refusing to back down from possibly impeaching a newly elected liberal state Supreme Court justice over her refusal to step aside in a redistricting case. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Thursday that impeachment was “absolutely not” off the table for Justice